You are probably asking yourself what is a word processor? A word processor is a computer program that allows you the user to create and manipulate text and add graphics, video and sound to documents. There are many different programs on the market MS WORD is one another is Word Perfect and many others.

Windows comes with it's own program called WordPad. You can do many things with WordPad. WordPad is all  the average person needs to make their documents.

Before we begin lets talk about file types. The type of a file is determined by it's extension. The file extension is what comes after the dot "." in a file name including the dot. So dan-list.txt is known as a text file because of it's .txt extension. There are literally thousands of different types of files out there.

WordPad will open text files .txt, rich text format files .rtf and word for windows files .doc. A text file is simply that text only no formatting is allowed in a simple text file. When you make a word processor file save your work as either a .doc file or .rtf file.

Right click on the link below and in the option menu select "save target as" and then using the browser function browse to the Christmas list folder we made in an earlier Tutorial and then save it.

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We now have to find the word processor WordPad program if you know where it is please start it, If you do not then click on Start and then All Programs and next click on Accessories and find the WordPad icon and click on it now the menus close and the program begins.
You should see the picture below.


Please click on the above picture to see a full scale picture labeled. To open a file click on the menu name file at the top of the page and from the pop up pick open, or click on the icon that looks like an open folder with an arrow above it. You should see a menu like the picture below.


As you can see the word processor menu opens in the My Documents folder now either click once on the Christmas List folder and then click on open or double click on the Christmas List folder. If you saved the downloaded file correctly you will see the picture below.


So now either click on the file once and then click open or double click on the file. Either way the window will close and return to the main program and the file will be open and you should see the screen below.


With a word processor you need to setup your page to suit your preference, whether the file has been started or not. Please click on File and then from the pop up pick page setup you should see the picture below.


This is where you change your options for your page. Look under Paper you have two options Size and Source. In the size box it says letter and beside that there is an arrow click on the arrow and a pop up appears. This lists all the different paper sizes available scroll to the size you want to print on and select it. Letter is probably the correct size to start with. Letter size is standard 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper.

If you look under source you will find many different options for feeding your paper leave it at the default.

In the Orientation box there is Portrait and Landscape. Portrait prints up the length of the paper and Landscape prints along the length of the paper, click in the landscape box and you will see the picture of the paper change to the landscape layout. Make sure you put it back to portrait for now.

Your word processor needs to know how far away from the top, bottom, right and left of the page you want your text to be. Under Margins you will see those words with a number beside them this is the defaults. Change them to suit the way you want it CAUTION: on the right and left sizes, do not make them smaller than .5. Your printer will most likely not be able to print the page with a number smaller than .5.

At the bottom there is OK, Cancel and Printer Pressing OK accepts all of your changes, Pressing Cancel rejects all of your changes and Printer allows you to choose which printer you want to use if you have more than one printer hooked up to your computer. When your done changing things press the ok button.

Lets look at the options available to us please click view in the menu and from the pop up menu choose options a box should appear that looks like the picture below.


Your word processor options are shown above. Each type of file has it's own tab with it's own options. WordPad has a default extension of .rtf which is rich text and thats what the options box opens to. Because this is a mid range word processor there are not alot of options.

Under toolbars putting a check mark in the box shows that toolbar and leaving it unchecked removes the toolbar. Under word wrap there are three options No wrap will type one single line of text no matter how long it is until the enter key is pressed to create a new line.

Try it now on the file that's open click the No Wrap button and then click on OK. The menu closes and the text  turns into two single lines of text. Open the options back up (view, options), the Wrap to Window option takes the text and creates a new line as soon as the text hits the size of the current window. NOTE this is only for viewing, when you print this it will print to the size of the margins you chose in the page setup.

Click the Wrap to Window button and then press OK, you will see the text has all moved back into the window area. Please make sure your working in a minimized window you should be able to see some of your desktop. If your not please do so now. What was that? you don't know what a minimized or maximized window is? Please go back to Computer Lessons and complete the tutorial on program-windows. Click here to go back.
 
Ok move your mouse over to the left hand side of the window until it changes into the drag arrows. Left click and hold and drag the window to the right you will notice that the text goes with it changing as you make the window larger or smaller.

Ok go back to the option screen view> options and now click on Wrap to ruler. Now when you grab the side of the window and stretch it larger or smaller the text does not change. This method of displaying your text shows you how the document will print as well.

Those are the hidden options in the word processor program Wordpad, other programs have more options.

The file you down loaded and have open is just some text that was typed in if you move your mouse into the area where there is text your cursor will change into what looks like a capital "I".

This "I" is your selection tool. Move it around the screen and left click you will notice a line appears where ever you clicked last. If you look at where the line is and now type something your typing begins where this line was.

Move your cursor to the end of the file and click at the end of the last word. If you wanted your text different then it is now you would go to the font drop down list and choose your new font. Like wise if you wanted a larger font you would go to the font size drop down and choose a different size and then begin typing.

I find it easier to type what I want and then edit it. Except if I am making a bulleted list. We will now look at making a bulleted list and then we will move onto editing. For those of you who may not know a bullet is an indented dot usually used for making lists. Move your cursor to the end of the file under all the text and press the left mouse button to place it there.

• This is a bullet to make a bullet press the bullet icon in the toolbar.
• Press the icon now and start typing something anything.
• everytime you press the enter key a new bullet starts, if you do not press enter the text wraps at your ruler setting until you do press enter.
• when you use bullets ensure to press enter when your finished and then press the bullet icon to turn bullets off

Using bullets makes a nice list, it really makes them stand out in other word processor programs you can have the list numbered or even different shaped bullets.

Ok let's edit something, the easiest way to edit something is to select it. Move your cursor up to the beginning of the red text. To select something in most text based programs you press your left mouse button and hold it down and then move your mouse high-lighting text until you have selected what you want.
Let's do that now, left click and hold at the beginning of the red text. Next move your mouse to the right. Do you see it? The words are high-lighting as you move your mouse and the "I" is leading the way, right? So keeping the left mouse button held down move the "I" until it is on the next line at the end of the red text notice how it selected everything in the line before?

Now let go of the left mouse button, the text should be still high-lighted. This high-lighting is one of the most important mouse actions when using a word processor. Now we have high-lighted what we want to edit right? We want the text larger, move your mouse to the font size drop down and then pick a size larger than 10 and watch the text change.

We want the text Bold, Move your mouse to the "B" and click it as you can see the text goes bold. If you click the "I" it will become italic text. If you choose the "U" with the line under it the high-lighted text will become underlined.

If you click on the "A" with the painters board behind it. A pop up list appears with colors in it. Pick the color you want the text to be and the high-lighted text will become that color. When your done editing that high-lighted text move your mouse into the text area anywhere and left click.

The next three icons in your word processor are your text alignment options. Click at the bottom of the page and type a few words three or four. Now high-light what you typed. Move your mouse to the icons at the top and click the center button which is center alignment your highlighted text should move to the center of the page.

This option types from the center of the page out the next option is right aligned which aligns all your text to the right hand side of the page this is not used very often.

Continue high-lighting text and manipulating it with your word processor until you have explored and are comfortable with all the options. Next right click on the link below and from the pop up menu choose "save target as" and save the file to the Christmas list folder.

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So you writing a letter to your brother you haven't seen in 2 years. You have a picture of your self add it your document. Your brother will be able to see you as he reads.

move your cursor to where you want the picture added and left click. Next go to Insert on your menu and then choose object a pop up menu will appear that looks like the picture below.


In the object type window you can see all the different types of objects you can insert in a file. Click on the Bitmap Image and on the right hand side click on the create from file option another window will now open that looks like the picture below.


Choose the Browse button and a file explorer will open, find the Christmas list folder under the My Documents folder and click open then click on the file you downloaded and choose ok. The picture is now inserted into your document where you clicked to have it inserted. Thats how you insert a picture in your document.

As you can see a word processor is an extremely powerful tool that you can do a lot with. There are alot of different types of files you can insert using your word processor including charts and videos. Experiment with your word processor to see everything it can do. This concludes the computer tutorial on your word processor. If you have any questions please ask using the contact form you can find on the main page.